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BlakeReid (1033116) writes "The Library of Congress has announced new exemptions from the DMCA's anti-circumvention measures, including:

DVDs for fair use by remixers, documentary filmmakers, and film professorsUnlocking and jailbreaking cell phonesVideo games for security researchSoftware protected by obsolete dongleseBooks for text-to-speech conversion

Hugh Pickens writes "The Guardian reports that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange today defended his decision to publish thousands of secret US military files about the war in Afghanistan, after the White House said the leaks "could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security". Assange rejected accusations that the leak had compromised America's national security. "We are familiar with groups whose abuse we expose attempting to criticise the messenger to distract from the power of the message," says Assange. "We have tried hard to make sure that this material does not put innocents at harm. All the material is over seven months old so is of no current operational consequence, even though it may be of very significant investigative consequence."" British military expert professor Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, says the leaked files were less damaging than the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal but would prove awkward for politicians. "There is no doubt that the leaks are politically pretty damaging. The papers give an impression of a lack of military discrimination in how operations were conducted. They are also appearing at the worst possible time, particularly in the United States, because people are looking for an exit strategy. This is old bad news at a new bad time.""

rollcall writes "The Livingston, Louisiana public school district is considering introducing intelligent design into its science curriculum. During the board's meeting Thursday, several board members expressed an interest in the teaching of creationism. 'Benton said that under provisions of the Science Education Act enacted last year by the Louisiana Legislature, schools can present what she termed "critical thinking and creationism" in science classes. Board Member David Tate quickly responded: "We let them teach evolution to our children, but I think all of us sitting up here on this School Board believe in creationism. Why can't we get someone with religious beliefs to teach creationism?" Fellow board member Clint Mitchell responded, "I agree...you don't have to be afraid to point out some of the fallacies with the theory of evolution. Teachers should have the freedom to look at creationism and find a way to get it into the classroom."'"

suraj.sun (1348507) writes "Physicists at the European particle physics laboratory CERN are planning a straight collider 31 kilometers long to complement the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and help them explain the mysteries of the universe.

CERN's 27-kilometer ring atom smasher, the LHC, only became fully operational in March this year, but the scientists plan to start building a new International Linear Collider (ILC), at a cost of $6.7 billion, in 2012 to smash electrons and positrons together

The tunnel will use superconducting magnets to accelerate electrons and their antimatter equivalents, positrons, towards each other at near light speed. Construction is expected to take seven years. European director of the ILC project, Professor Brian Foster, said the linear collider would enable physicists to explore in more detail the findings of the LHC.

The location of the ILC is not finalized, but somewhere close to CERN's headquarters in Geneva is likely because most of the physicists who will want to use it are there. Around 700 scientists based at 300 universities and laboratories are already working on the project.

Compensation for what? In the modern Western world, quaint notions of property rights and due process have been deprecated in favor of civil forfeiture, eminent domain for transfer to other private parties, stare decisis, and political connections.

You can't really own property anymore so much as lease it from the government for a yearly fee. (If you disagree with this viewpoint, try not paying your property taxes: then you'll find out who the real owner is.) Therefore, since the government owns all your stuff anyway, they have no need to compensate you for damages, since the government only damaged their own stuff.

In particular, the thing that I like better in Mass. is the new Marijuana laws. It is one of the few states in the union that doesn't put you in jail for possession of a plant. This could change of course:-(

I think NH is much more likely to decriminalize marijuana sometime in the near future than MA is to *ever* decriminalize legal gun possession (snark), or lower its taxes, or repeal the zoning laws that make it so expensive to live near the wealthy people who elect the zoning boards.

Besides, I am willing to assert without evidence that tens of thousands of NH residents smoke up on a regular basis without anyone knowing. It isn't the best situation because of course it would be better if the state recognized an individual's right to engage in *any* peaceful behavior, but as a practical matter you can already exercise your right to love you, Mary-jane...

More importantly, there is actually a non-trivial percentage of people in NH who understand and believe in liberty: the same simply isn't true of MA, partly because NH is so close and attracts them.

I would like more specifics, though I'm not going to be a tool asking you.

In MA:

(1) Gun laws are ridiculous. Not worst in the nation IMO, but certainly in the bottom five. You want that Kimber.45 that is fully parts-interchangeable with the Para 1911? Sorry; those aren't approved for sale here! You want to remove that front sight from your Bushmaster and replace it with an aftermarket gas block with a flip-up front sight? Sorry; you have a pinned muzzle brake, because for some reason threaded muzzles are too dangerous! Dumbasses.

(2) Housing is way too expensive, mostly because of local zoning ordinances that restrict the density of housing. I'd love to live within a walk or a 10-15 minute T ride from where I work, for instance, but I'm not going to pay $500K for a 1400 square foot condo: it just ain't gonna happen. And there's no reason for it to be that way except for the artificial scarcity of housing within the Cambridge/Somerville/Boston/Arlington city limits.

(3) Local government is openly corrupt. Virtually every politically-connected demographicâ"the unions, the politicians, cops, large corporations, and many of the rich local property ownersâ"colludes to transfer wealth from everyone else to themselves. Taxes don't primarily go toward public goods and common services. My total tax burden is roughly 50% than it would be were I living in NH, and yet the roads in MA (for instance) are absolute shite. I've already had to replace one $500 rim from striking a huge pothole at night this year. While it's perfectly rational that things would work this way under a democracy, there's no excuse for it when there's so much waste, fraud, and pork to remove from the budget.

(4) 12% short term capital gains tax. OMFG. That alone cost me a huge amount of money over the past two years.

That's just what I can think of off the top of my head.

The downsides to NH from friends seem to be (a) the state-owned liquor stores have a generally poor selection, though they can order what you want; (b) getting zoning approval for houses outside of established neighborhoods is a PITA because they require you to upgrade the road if it isn't class V or better; (c) property taxes are generally higher than in MA. In return, they get a part-time legislature; generally more responsive local government; less local- and state-level corruption; less sprawl and more natural areas; better roads; and lower overall taxes.